Showing posts with label classic film. Show all posts
Showing posts with label classic film. Show all posts

10 April 2015

MUBI Selects - Friday 10th April 2015

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It's the weekend again which only mean its time for relaxation, wind down after the hard slog of the week.Refuel your brain with sophistication and MUBI Selects.

In our latest weekly 'Mubi Selects' we've teamed with MUBI the purveyors of great cinema online curating a great selection of cult, classic, independent, and award-winning movies. It's an international community discovering wonderful intelligent thought provoking films MUBI is your passport to those great films.

MUBI unleash great new films every week and in our MUBI Selects we've picked  a selection of those great movies  help you enjoy that lazy weekend you desire...

Cold Fish (2015)| Sion Sono

"Be Man (or woman)!" welcome to the macabre world of Japanese auteur Sion Sono, a cold calculated dive into dysfunctional families, sociopathic serial killers and a man at breaking point. Expect the unexpected when dealing with Sono films what may start as a tropical fish owener been taking over by a local fish entrepeneur slowly becomes something more.In the words of MUNI themseleves Cold Fish is “grand gestures, narrative hyperboles, positively vulgar symbolism—apocalypse 24/7… Full-throttle hysteria splashed with choice colours in eye-poppingly garish hues.” This is one for Saturday late night accompanied by your favourite adult beverage.


Comic Book Confidential (1989) | Ron Mann

Roy Mann's Altman documentary is currently doing the rounds at selected UK Cinemas we go back 26 years to his pulpy documentary on quintessential element of American pop and counter-culture. Wacky Baccy, comic books as Man examines the underrated art of comic books, the pulpy media that now sources the most popular genres on our big screens today. It may not have many names that are in the industry today but an nostalgic look back at the industry which the artists and write where the celebs rather than the stories and characters they created.


Cherry Blossoms (2008) | Doris Dörrie

When you learn film theory at University or college you learn about the great masters of cinema and Doris Dörrie's film is inspired by the masterful Yasujiro Ozu.We all get old one day that is why our elders tells us to grab life by horns embrace it, however rarely do we a film about growing old. Cherry Blossoms is that film a moving tale that delivers with clarity and compassion a story of a griefing husband who loses his wife to a terminal illness. When she's gone he realises he did not sournd her with a lot of affection, sometimes the realisation comes too late but in her final days he cherishes her dreams. It's also a story to remind you not to forget about yourself in grieving times.


Involuntary (2008) | Rube Ostlund

Opening today in UK Cinemas Ruben Ostlund's Force Majeure what better way to kick off the weekend by looking back to one of his earlier films, a cunningly comedic film set in Sweden nearly Summer minor indiscretions and misbehavior abound, Leffe is been a prankster showing off, a teacher doesn't know how to draw the line when dealing with fellow teachers. Teenage girls take sexy pictures but one ends up drunk found by a stranger. It's a film that will hit the bone with many people at how mundane this film is, a humourous look at how our Nordic cousins attempt to deal with everyday situations.



Why not give up on those expensive chain coffees once a while, to enjoy the weekend and every day great films at MUBI? click below to get more info on the other fantastic films on offer...

23 March 2015

Blu-ray Review - The Tales of Hoffmann (1951)

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Genre:
Fantasy, Musical
Distributor:
StudioCanal UK
BD Release Date:
23rd March 2015 (UK)
Rating: U
Director:
Powell, Emeric Pressburger
Cast:
Moira Shearer, Robert Rounseville, Ludmilla Tchérinam
Buy:Tales Of Hoffmann - Special Edition * Digitally Restored [Blu-ray] [1951]

Michael Powell and his cohort Emeric Pressburger were cinematic painters; every shot in their best films has the texture and skill of the master artists. The Tales of Hoffmann comes at a transitional period for Powell and Pressburger, as they were forced into make a couple films they didn’t want to make. It’s also the last one that really has the same splendour their many wonderful films of the ‘40s had, they would make a few more films but the magic just wasn’t there.

The Tales of Hoffmann plays out as this surrealistic proto-psychedelic phantasmagoria opera. It’s based on the opera, The Tales of Hoffmann, which itself is based on the stories of the real E. T. A. Hoffmann. The film is indeed an opera and I have to admit for the majority of the running time, I had the subtitles to clarify what was being sung in case I missed a key plot point. It’s an early example of an anthology film; it’s 3 stories are fantastical in nature, all of which have their own title card.

The stories are all as strange as the psychedelic madness of the set and costume design. The first story is about a robot woman! It ends with one quite fittingly, about a woman who is forced to sign so much it kills her. It’s pure gothic storytelling with liberal amounts of fantasy, it’s no wonder horror maestro George A. Romero has said numerous times it was the film that made him want to make films. It’s all bookended by a drunken Hoffman telling the stories in a tavern.

The real wonder of the film is the work by cinematographer Christopher Challis, along with production design by Hein Heckroth, and art direction from Arthur Lawson. Powell and Pressburger had been making steps towards a film that had visuals that matched operatic music before like their masterwork The Red Shoes, but it comes into full formation here. The design work is almost reminiscent of German expressionism but in colour, each story even has it’s own colour palette. The imaginative design work is simply mind boggling at times, as Thelma Schoonmaker points out in the interview on the disc, it looks like made wigs out of celluloid.

When it came out in 1951 the world wasn’t ready for a film with such imagination on show. Over the years it’s stature has grown and it’s influence can be seen from the aforementioned work of Romero, to the fantasy of Terry Gilliam, to the use of red in Martin Scorsese’s films, to the operatic violence of Brian De Palma. We have to thank Martin Scorsese spearheading the restoration process on this, along with many other key works of Powell and Pressburger. I’ve seen a handful of the new restorations of their work and they are simply breathtakingly gorgeous, every single one.

★★★★
Ian Schultz


23 January 2015

Raymond Bernard’s WOODEN CROSSES [LES CROIX DE BOIS], To Get Masters Of Cinema Release

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Eureka! Entertainment have announced the release of WOODEN CROSSES [LES CROIX DE BOIS], from Raymond Bernard, the director of the epic and definitive French screen adaptation of Les misérables. Alongside All Quiet on the Western Front and Paths of Glory, Wooden Crosses is perhaps the greatest depiction of World War I ever put on screen. Presented from a dazzling new restoration carried out by Pathé in 2014 to mark the 100 years since the start of the war, Wooden Crosses is released in a Dual Format (Blu-ray and DVD edition) as part of the Masters of Cinema Series on 30 March 2015.




The film that most firmly established the talent of French director Raymond Bernard before his epic adaptation of Victor Hugo’s Les misérables, Wooden Crosses [Le croix de bois] was widely hailed at
the time of its release in 1932 for its searing depiction of the horrors of the European front during World War I; subsequently, Bernard was named soldier of honour of the 39th Infantry Division.

Adapted from a novel by Roland Dorgelès (a former corporal of the 39th), Wooden Crosses offers a kaleidoscope of cinematographic technique to present a visceral, enveloping recreation of one regiment’s experience of battlefield hell. (Its entire cast is comprised of war veterans.) It is an epic tapestry that rivals John Ford’s Four Sons and Lewis Milestone’s All Quiet on the Western Front in both its poetry of trauma and steadfastness of conviction that war must be held in contempt.

From a gorgeous new Pathé restoration carried out for the centenary for the start of the Great War, Raymond Bernard’s Wooden Crosses retains a ferocity that continues to reverberate across generations. The Masters of Cinema Series is proud to present this new restoration of the film in a special Dual Format (Blu-ray + DVD) edition.

SPECIAL DUAL FORMAT (BLU-RAY + DVD) EDITION:

• New HD 1080p presentation of the film from Pathé’s astonishing 2014 restoration
• Optional English subtitles
• Video interview with historian Marc Ferro and film historian Laurent Veray
• A short documentary on the new restoration
• Wooden Crosses: A Sonic Adventure, documentary exploring early sound design
• Archival interview with Roland Dorgelès
• Archival interview with Raymond Bernard
• Vintage 1914 newsreels
• Documentary piece on early 20th century poster artist Adrien Barrère
• The Absent Battle, the Omnipresent War, a collection of photography from WWI taken by André Schnellbach who served with Dorgelès in the 39th
• Booklet featuring a new and exclusive interview by film critic Emmanuel Burdeau, and rare archival material.

We hope to review this great film closer to release  which is 23rd March pre-order/order Wooden Crosses [Les Croix de Bois] (1932) [Masters of Cinema] Dual Format (Blu-ray & DVD)

15 January 2015

BFI To Release Chinese Masterpeice Spring In A Small Town On DVD

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Regarded as the finest work from the first great era of Chinese filmmaking, Fei Mu’s quiet, piercingly poignant study of adulterous desire and guilt-ridden despair is a remarkable rediscovery, often compared to David Lean’s Brief Encounter. Following its theatrical release last year as part of the BFI’s major season A Century of Chinese Cinema, Spring in a Small Town will be released on DVD by the BFI on 23 February 2014.


China / 1948 / black and white / Mandarin with optional English subtitles / DVD9 / Original aspect ratio 1.33:1 / Dolby Digital 1.0 mono audio
After eight years of marriage to Liyan – once rich but now a shadow of his former self following a long, ruinous war – Yuwen does little except deliver his daily medication. A surprise visit from Liyan’s friend Zhang re-energises the household, but also stirs up dangerously suppressed longings and resentments.

Focusing on people rather than politics, director Fei Mu’s greatest achievement perfectly captures the dilemma of desire raging against loyalty, and sits alongside both the tender family dramas of Japan’s Yasujiro Ozu and the wonderful post-war humanist realist cinema of René Clément, Satyajit Ray and Vittorio De Sica. It has been acknowledged as a formative influence by Zhang Yimou (House of Flying Daggers), Chen Kaige (Farewell My Concubine), Jia Zhangke (Still Life), and Wong Kar-wai (In the Mood for Love).

Fei Mu’s deft use of locations, dissolves and camera movements makes for a fraught, febrile mood of hesitant passion, entrapment and ennui. Cinematically and psychologically sophisticated, Spring in a Small Town has been restored by the China Film Archive as part of the Digital Restoration Project. It is accompanied here by two rare and fascinating films from the BFI National Archive.



Special features
BFI re-release trailer
A Small Town in China (1933, 9 mins): an intimate portrait of community life in an unidentified Chinese town
This is China (1946, 9 mins): a fascinating compilation of scenes showing diversity and disparity in 1940s China
Illustrated booklet with film notes and credits

Fei Mu's Spring In A Small Town will arrive on DVD from BFI on 23rd February, we are hoping to review  so stay tuned and you can pre-orderSpring in a Small Town (DVD) now.

1 December 2014

A Marriage Made In Heaven, When You Buy Ganja & Hess On Dual Format This January

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Eureka! Entertainment have announced the release of Ganja &Hess. Flirting with the conventions of blaxploitation and the horror cinema, Bill Gunn’s revolutionary independent film Ganja & Hess is a highly stylized and utterly original treatise on sex, religion, and African American identity. Later recut and released in an inferior version, this edition represents the original release, restored by The Museum of Modern Art with support from The Film Foundation, and mastered in HD from a 35mm negative. Ganja &Hess will be released in a Dual Format (Blu-ray & DVD) edition on 26 January 2015.

Check out this clip Eureka! have sent us...


Duane Jones (Night of the Living Dead) stars as anthropologist Hess Green, who is stabbed with an ancient ceremonial dagger by his unstable assistant (director Bill Gunn), endowing him with the
blessing of immortality, and the curse of an unquenchable thirst for blood. When the assistant’s beautiful and outspoken wife Ganja (Marlene Clark) comes searching for her vanished husband, she and Hess form an unexpected partnership. Together, they explore just how much power there is in the blood.

SPECIAL DUAL FORMAT (BLU-RAY + DVD) EDITION:

• Brand new 1080p high-definition transfer
• Optional English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing
• Feature-length commentary with producer Chiz Schultz, lead actress Marlene Clark, cinematogropher James Hinton and composer Sam Waymon
• Select scene commentary with historian David Kalat
• The Blood of the Thing: film historian David Kalat leads an interview-based documentary about the film
• Gunn’s original screenplay available via DVD-Rom and BD-Rom
• Reversible Sleeve
• 24-page booklet featuring a new essay by critic and author Kim Newman and a vintage letter written by Gunn to the New York Times, illustrated with archival images